


You'll Wish You'd Lost

by caramelcoffeefist (daoxmu)



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 22:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3826576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daoxmu/pseuds/caramelcoffeefist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>for ask.fm prompt "GURIRE WHERE RED GOES TO A POSH PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOL BUT LIKES TO GO UNDERGROUND FIGHTING WITH HIS PIKACHU AND THATS WHERE HE MEETS GREEN"</p>
            </blockquote>





	You'll Wish You'd Lost

Some boys worked through their built up grief and stress through smoke and jazz. Some through sport. Red had his weekly ritual. 

Red almost broke his skin on the metal box under the bush in his haste to find it. Ignoring the pain he frantically flipped the lid up, grabbed the beat up clothes inside then rolled further into the bushes to get changed. 

The nerves faded as Red shed his rumpled uniform. When all was right, his uniform in the box and his “outside” clothes on, Red formed a hand ocarina and blew twice.

A lean pikachu bounded into his arms and Red hastened to give it a berry. His daily apology for their inability to live together. Technically Pikachu could stay with Red in the halls but the “pokeball only” stipulation made the option wholly unappealing. His protest created some minor tension with his schoolmates, Red didn’t miss the whispers of “Pallet Boy” in the hallway and people jeering at him for using school rental pokemon. Most of them were from Jubilife city or other large cities overseas like Saffron or Goldenrod. There wasn’t a lot of space in big city so their pokemon were probably used to staying in pokeballs for longer. Most of Red’s team had no problem with pokeballs either but Pikachu had started out as a domestic pokemon. She’d throw a fit if he started with pokeballs now.

So here he was, meeting his pokemon outside after curfew. 

Latching his team onto his trainer belt, Red walked off to the alley behind the Jublife Global Trade Station branch. To Red, home travelled with the individual, and he felt the most at home when he was walking to the alley under the light of the moon with his crew. That was probably why he kept coming back. Nevermind the threat of expulsion, there was only so much you could learn about pokemon in the classroom. Honestly, he was doing himself a favour with all this extra training. Not that his mother saw the light.

_“Stay in Pallet or go off to Kalos, I want you to be happy. But you **will** graduate high school first.”_

Had he known earlier that his mother thought like this maybe he wouldn’t have been so overachieving at his old school. Then maybe he wouldn’t have gotten accepted into this weird posh school in Jubilife. 

The alleyway already smelled like fire when Red walked in, someone’s fire-blast happy charizard he assumed. Every time someone brought a charizard, and every time Red demonstrated firsthand why that was a mistake.

“Hey look it’s Red!” 

At some point within the past several months of destroying every trainer that came to Jublife City Red’s mere entrance was enough to get everyone’s attention. For a while now it was as if southwest Sinnoh had nothing left to offer him and that it had only been his body on autopilot dragging itself over every time. He was more or less a budget gym leader by now. Maybe it was time for him to find somewhere new.

“Red you’ve got to meet this guy!”

Red was drawn back into reality by a tugging on his arm, dragging him closer to where the battles took place. 

“His name’s Green and he swept through all of us just like you. Red and Green, you guys already sound like quite the pair!” 

It wasn’t like people in the alley had a terrible habit of hyping up newcomers but somehow Red wasn’t convinced. 

They walked up to the makeshift arena in time to hear a shout of “Who’s next!?”

The shout came from a tall lanky boy that Red might have recognised. 

The boy grinned upon seeing Red. "Oh good! Get your balls out and let's dance. What's your name?"

Red was in the good habit of keeping his trainer belt tidy. He reached for the first ball on his belt. His hand itched to toss it out. 

"You're awfully quiet. Don't tell me you're stunned already."

Red clicked the release on the ball. They followed league rules in the alley behind Jublife GTS. As such that meant spiky-haired newcomer had to send his lead out first. Although if he continued to ask stupid questions Red wasn't opposed to throwing his ball out first.

"Fine." The newcomer shrugged. "Shaking in his boots at the mere sight of Ookido Green already. Whatever. I'm ready. He seems ready. Let's go."

Red bit the inside of his cheek. Originally he thought this kid might have been someone from his primary school in Pallet, a kid of the famous professor. Except he didn’t remember any uppity little dicks living in Pallet, especially not any that shared a name with the professor.

"Trainer Red versus Trainer Green begin!"

It ended up being the longest battle Red's had in months and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On one end Green’s periodic jeering had done nothing for Red’s opinion of him, but then there had been some oddities during the battle that would not leave his mind. At some points Green go quiet and that was where the trouble began. 

Red knew the stats of his pokemon better than the back of his hand. He had a general idea of what the stats of Green’s pokemon should have been based on their level.

An exeggutor should not have been able to take down a third of his team before even hitting yellow. A gyrados in the thirties was not supposed to be faster than his Pikachu that he specifically trained for speed.

That wasn’t even mentioning the items. Red hadn’t missed the odd bands and orbs that Green’s pokemon held that Red had never even seen in his faded textbook. It was difficult given that they glowed whenever Green’s pokemon did something they shouldn’t have been able to do. 

Red was broken out of his reverie by a harsh grip on his wrist. 

“Pokenav number. Now.”

He had half a mind to say no. It wasn’t like anyone he exchanged pokegear numbers with ever called him. 

“Win first.” Red himself was a bit shocked at the words that slipped out of his mouth. Saying dumb things wasn’t usually a problem for him. Then again he didn’t have the greatest control of his id. Buttons were there for him to push and Green scowling at him was the funniest thing Red had seen in a while. It would be a waste not to prod at him.

“In case you forgot I got you down to your…” Green stopped shouting mid-sentence and released Red’s wrist. He grabbed the pokegear jutting out of Red’s pocket, “I’m putting my number on your gear. You’re gonna call me.” 

Red mulled it over. Talking to people on the phone was unthinkable, but so was how close he had come to losing. Maybe it had been too long and this was a warning sign that he was becoming lazy and complacent… _soft_. He didn’t feel very much like a winner.

Green jabbed at Red’s chest with his index finger. “We’re rivals now and we’re going to meet up again.” He looked down at Red’s eyes searching for anything other than dead crimson, or confusion. All Green saw was the usual wide-eyed blank stare.

“Tch,” Green muttered. “Smell you later.”

Red raised an eyebrow. This night kept getting weirder and weirder. “Don’t you mean-?”

“No. Yes. I...” Green glared at Red. “Whatever. Bye loser.”

Red watched Green stomp off into the distance and let out a breath. If this was the excitement he could look forward to every week with Green on his contacts list then maybe having a rival wasn’t so bad.


End file.
